Open hands Open hearts

Walking back from Easter Sunday church service yesterday I was filled with such thankfulness, excitement, joy and and overwhelming love for God for all that He is and all that He has done and for giving the world Jesus and for saving me and just feeling so so so loved by Him.

As I was going along I noticed in a dark alley way coming into the road that I was walking along, a shadow of a person sitting crossed legged on the ground with a cloth on the floor with a few coins scattered on it...   I walked by wanting to give him something so checked my pockets for money and only found some small coins that I thought were not worth anything and so carried on walking.  I then realized that I was walking by someone in need, and how easy it is to just pass them by... even after a church service where we celebrated God giving us Jesus, the most precious thing to Him, and His Resurrection!  I was also reminded of a cousin of mine who gave a homeless person a considerable amount of money not that long ago and was worrying about having given too much and it just reminded me that we don’t have to give people our ‘coppers’ we find in our pockets, or ‘extra' money that we have... but we can give deliberately.

  So, I went to the machine and got a bit of money out and walked back to him.  I gave it to him and he was so surprised.  It was not a lot, but it was possibly more than he was used to getting.  His bowed over head looked up at me he took his hood off and he said thank you, shook my hand and was just so grateful and I was able to talk to him tell him that Jesus loved him looking into his eyes.

Compassion is not just a feeling of sympathy or sadness for someone and the desire to help them; it also needs the action of helping them in love.

I know what some of you are thinking: that I don't know what he is going to spend that money on, but in this case, I really don't mind.  Obviously I would hope that he spends it on something like food or something, but it's not for me to worry about because it created an opening for God.

By giving just that small amount, deliberately, not skimping, the man was touched and I believe he was able to receive more than just the physical money, but also knowing that someone noticed him as a person, not as a stereotype, or just ‘anyone’ on the street; he was able to also feel a bit loved, and the action of him lifting up his head touched me so much.  It doesn’t take much to make someone feel worth something, it doesn’t take amazing amounts of time out of our day, it doesn’t need to cost us huge amounts, but we all have possibilities and opportunities to make someone’s day, or even life better.

How easy it is to forget that God died for us all, all mankind... and because Jesus gave His love for us, we can give out that love to other people... so that they can experience love and be touched and transformed... It’s easy to walk by someone and judge, or ignore or see them and think that we don’t have anything to give, but we all have something to give, whether it’s having a conversation with someone, smiling, giving a hug, giving time, gifts, praying, buying food for people, we all can do it and it makes a difference in people’s lives more than we know.  So this is just an encouragement to keep your eyes, hands and hearts open...and for those who already do (for example my friend Hilary)...to keep on :)